Being Honest
by Leon L. Lawliet
Summary: One who drowns her sorrow in substance, and one who refuses to say what she means...eventually, it all has to come out. T for safety. On hiatus.
1. Introduction

**A/N: It's short, I know. Hence the title of the chapter. The title of the story itself will make sense in due time. This is also written purely of my own interpretation of Vocaloid.

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Neru sighed and shifted both bags of groceries to one hand, rummaging through her pockets for the key. The porch light was out (again), which didn't help any. She finally located the object, unlocked the door, and took a deep breath.

"Three, two, one…"

She pushed the handle down and swung the door inward.

"Neru-chan!"

"Yep," she mumbled under her breath.

Neru extended her palm directly in front of her, which Haku ran into face first.

"Look, I don't care how drunk you are, you can't tackle me as soon as I come in. Unless you want to be without food for a week." The blonde shut the door behind her and wandered into the kitchen to put the groceries away.

Haku trailed behind her like a puppy. "But I want a hug…" she drawled, half of her words almost slurred beyond recognition.

Neru turned and glared at her. "How much have you had tonight, anyway?"

Haku turned her eyes to the floor and thought carefully, or at least appeared to, before answering. "Just three," she said, holding up four fingers.

"Yeah, I'll bet." The blonde returned to her task. "Go to bed."

"If Neru-chan will give me a good night kiss."

Neru immediately dropped the bag she was holding and spun around. "Give you a _what?_"

"Good night kiss!" Haku gave her a lopsided smile.

"You've got to be kidding. Nobody wants to kiss you when you smell like alcohol."

"You don't?" Her face changed to a mild pout.

"Especially not me," Neru huffed.

"…Hug then," the drunk said, throwing herself at the girl and sending both of them sprawling to the floor.

"Haku, you idiot!" Neru yelled, propping herself up on one elbow. "How many times have I told you not to do that?"

No response.

"Hey. Answer me, booze breath."

She glared down at Haku, who had both arms clamped around Neru's waist, snoring peacefully. Her eyebrow gave a violent twitch.

"Oh for…"

She wrestled with the girl for ten minutes before escaping the vice, then spent another fifteen dragging her to her bedroom before dumping her unceremoniously on the sheets.

"Honestly, you're hopeless, you know that?" Neru frowned, then pulled the covers over her and turned to leave.

"Neru-chan…"

It was barely a whisper, but it made the blonde look back over her shoulder.

"Lonely…" Haku mumbled again, raising a sheet with her arm.

Neru scowled, her face growing hotter and hotter until she bent over and jabbed Haku's forehead with her finger, hard.

"…Just this once, got it?"

Haku grinned sleepily and gave an incoherent reply. Neru sighed heavily and crawled in beside her, immediately getting trapped in a bear hug.

She watched for a while, making sure Haku was completely out of it before leaning over and whispering "I'll kiss you when you'll remember it, idiot." She then rolled over and got as far away as Haku's grasp would allow.

Somehow, both managed to fall asleep fairly quickly, whether from warmth, exhaustion, or, in Haku's case, intoxication. Everything was peaceful as long as Neru could avoid Haku's face, because really, her breath was terrible.


	2. Trick and Treat

**A/N: Yes, I really can write a chapter two. Accomplishment. I swore I wouldn't use song titles for chapter names, but...it just fit.

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Neru's cell phone was never more than five feet from her body. Twice she'd torn apart half of the house after misplacing it. It was simply something she did not go without.

It woke her the next morning with an incessant buzz. She pried Haku off, who thankfully remained asleep, then knocked the phone to the ground before snatching it and flipping it open.

"Whaddaya want?" she grumbled sleepily.

The other end was silent for a moment. "Good morning to you too, Neru." Miku's voice carried a note of sarcasm through the line. "Sounds like you had a wonderful night."

The blonde yawned loudly. "There is no such thing with this idiot around."

"And yet you still live with her." She could have sworn Miku giggled. "I wonder why…?"

"Shut up," Neru growled at the phone.

"Lighten up, sheesh. Anyway, we're headed out to do some shopping, you want to come?"

"We?"

"Yeah, Kaito and I," Miku answered. "And you, if you want."

"You went shopping yesterday."

"Well, we need to go again."

Neru sighed. "Whatever. See you in twenty," she said, and pressed the end button. She stopped to make sure Haku was still out of it, then silently made her way out the door.

Thirty minutes later, Miku and Kaito greeted a mildly irritated blonde on the corner. "You're late," she snapped.

Kaito grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, lost my scarf."

"Yeah, right. You never take that thing off." She rounded on Miku. "And you guys bought enough onions and ice cream yesterday to build a snow fort and army. Why did you really drag me out here?"

Miku raised her hands in mock defeat. "Okay, fine, you got me. I just figured it'd be nice to have a reprieve from the drunks for a while." Their feet began moving with their mouths.

Neru shot her a quizzical look. "Luka's a drunk now?"

"Well, not normally, but Meiko found a stash of beer last night and forced her to join in, and then…" Miku trailed off with a slight cringe while Kaito's face went bright scarlet.

In turn, Neru deadpanned. "Never mind, I'm pretty sure I get it."

"Not so different from your drunk, huh?"

A streak of red crossed the blonde's face. "She is not _my_ drunk! Get to the point or I'm leaving!"

Miku sighed. "Actually, right now, we're just following this guy," she said, gesturing to the childish man beside her. Neru grimaced.

"I can feel that, you know," Kaito said without averting his gaze.

"Good," the blonde shot back. Miku giggled.

Suddenly, Kaito's eyes lit up. "Found it!" he cried, tearing off down the street and turning abruptly into a café at the end of the block. By the time the girls arrived, he'd procured an outdoor table, three ice cream sundaes, and a rather large grin.

"So predictable," Neru groaned as the two sat down.

"Oh, lay off," Kaito replied. "My treat today."

"Really? Thank you, Kaito," Miku said before taking a bite.

"Yeah, thanks, I guess," Neru added, digging into her own dessert.

They ate in moderate silence for a few minutes before Kaito tried inching his spoon towards Miku's sundae, which was promptly swatted away. "Eat your own," she declared.

"Fine, fine," he answered, taking a spoonful of his own and holding it out in front of him. "My apologies, miss."

Miku blushed slightly, but opened her mouth and allowed him to place the frozen morsel inside.

Across the table, Neru leered at them. "You two act like children, you know that?"

Miku gave her an oblivious look. "What?" She then turned back to Kaito. "Ah, Kaito, you got it all over your face. Slob."

Kaito stopped mid-bite and arched an eyebrow. "Hm?"

"Here, hold still…" she said, then leaned over and kissed him full on the lips, removing any residual ice cream. Kaito's face resumed its scarlet hue, while Neru looked ready to explode.

"What the heck is wrong with you guys?" the blonde shouted.

Miku gave her companions a puzzled look. "Did I do something wrong?"

Kaito adopted the same look. "No, I don't think so…"

Neru slammed her hands on the table. "Gah, I give up. I'd rather deal with all the drunks than you two." She stomped off, taking the rest of her sundae with her. The napkin left in its place read a short, scrawled 'Thank you'.

Miku grinned after her. "I wish she could just say what she means. It's not really fair to Haku like this."

Kaito shot her a blank stare. "What about Haku?"

Miku turned to the ice cream aficionado. "Oh, come on, you know."

The stare continued.

"…You don't?"

And continued.

"Maybe you are an idiot after all."

Kaito's forehead twitched. "Hey. I'm kidding, sheesh."

Miku giggled. "I know. It's okay," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek. "You're _my_ idiot." Somewhere down the street, she was pretty sure she heard a faint gagging sound.


	3. Blame It on the Drunk, Not the Alcohol

**A/N: No, I did not forget about this. Completely. I took a reality break and picked up World of Warcraft (if you play, drop a line). Nevertheless, I bring you...chapter three. I have so much fun envisioning the end of this story, I forget I have to write the middle.**

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Not five minutes after the door slammed, a loud ring echoed out from the dining room. Haku had made sure it would wake her no matter how drunk or hungover she was, so the shrill sound combined with the absence of her human pillow made for a lousy wake-up call. She stumbled out of bed, retrieved the phone from under the table and flipped it open.

"H'lo?" she yawned into the mouthpiece.

"You sound like me an hour ago," Meiko's voice floated back across the line. "Have too much fun with your roommate last night?"

That woke Haku with a start. "I-I did no such thing." Or she hoped she didn't…

"Mmhm," came the reply. "Anyway, all the liquor in our house is gone for some reason, you need any?"

She stared at the seven empty bottles on the table she'd have to explain later, then scratched her forehead. "Not really, but…"

"Great, see you there," Meiko answered, then hung up.

Haku sighed, took a few minutes (just a few) to clean up, and vacated the house. As fate would have it, someone had built the holy grail of liquor stores five blocks from each of their houses. Not that that had any effect on their choices of lodgings. They were there before it was. Meiko and Luka greeted her at its entrance, both with arms folded.

"Good morning, Haku! Glad we could join your routine," the brunette sang from the doorway.

Haku sighed again. "No, I promised Neru I wouldn't drink so much anymore." Luka raised an eyebrow. "I live with her, after all; I don't want to be a pest. And…" She paused.

Meiko looked at her expectantly. "And?"

"Um…nothing."

"Ah," she said, clapping her hands together. "She won't kiss you with booze breath."

Haku's face flared. "Th-that has nothing to do with it." She calmed a little before continuing. "By the way…why is Luka here?"

The pink-haired girl shot their leader a glare. "Yes, why _am_ I here?"

"Because you look guilty," Meiko shot back. "I know you know what happened, so just spill it."

Luka's face turned a bright scarlet. "Not on your life."

"So be it. Oh well, it's not like I'm buying anyway." She waved off the quizzical looks with a blue card that clearly didn't belong to her.

"Does Kaito know about this?" Luka asked.

"If he doesn't, he will," she responded, grabbing the girl's arm. "Now c'mon."

Haku tailed them inside, taking notice of two blondes hopping a chain link fence down the street. Meiko produced a list from her pocket, split it between them, and took off to the second floor, leaving the other two to their assignments.

Luka turned to Haku and held up her piece of the list. "Mind helping me with this? I've never heard of most of this stuff."

"I guess…" she said, taking the paper. Haku was more familiar with this store than she really wanted to be, but such was life sometimes. "Um…not that it's any of my business, but…what did happen last night?"

A light red scrawled across Luka's face as she held up two fingers. "Two things. One: do not sit next to Meiko when she's drunk. Two: do not accept a drink from her, especially when she's drunk."

Haku gave her a puzzled look. "But I've done that many times…"

"That's- oh, forget it," she finished. "Let's just find this stuff and go."

They spent the next fifteen minutes catering to the list, Haku leading the search and Luka memorizing as many names as she could so she could avoid them later. They finished just as Meiko returned down the stairs with an armload of bottles and three small cups.

"Guess I don't have to ask if you found everything," Luka sighed.

"Nope. Look, they even had free samples," Meiko answered, offering each of them a cup.

Luka glared at her. "Absolutely not. That will never touch my lips again."

"Aw, c'mon, you did fine with it before."

"I- wait, what?"

Meiko gave her a sly grin. "My memory isn't _that_ bad, you know." She turned to Haku while the other girl's face slowly cooled off again."One for you, two for me. Or two for you, one for me."

Haku shook her head. "Thanks, but I promised I wouldn't…"

"Oh yeah…must be pretty special if you're turning down drinks." She proceeded to down all three cups at once. "Not that that's a bad thing," she said, glancing sideways at Luka. "Men aren't exactly necessary."

Both of her companions flushed violently. "Says the one who's using a man's money to buy all of this," the younger one answered.

"Oh, don't be so stingy. You can help me with this batch too," Meiko chuckled, placing all of it on the counter.

The clerk stared at her. "Uh, ma'am, you can't-"

"Yes I can," she interrupted. "Check with the manager."

He shrugged and retrieved a phone from under the desk. "Hello, sir? There's a woman trying to buy…" He took a moment to count. "Thirty bottles of…what? Yes, brown hair, red clothes…blue card?" She placed it on top of the tallest bottle. "Yes…really?...Who's Kaito?...Yes sir," he said, and finally hung up. "My apologies, ma'am, I'll ring this up right away."

They exited three minutes later with enough booze to open a small bar. Meiko and Luka carried two bags each. Haku, true to her word, hadn't purchased anything.

"Impressive," Meiko mused. "Invite us to the wedding, yeah?"

Haku grinned sheepishly. "I told you that's not the point…"

"Oh! I know," the brunette said, rounding on the third of the group, "can we have a wedding?"

Luka leered at her. "You're getting way ahead of yourself again."

"Fine then, tonight I'll-"

"Meiko," she sighed again, "you don't need alcohol for that." She leaned in and gave her a quick smooch before pulling back with a grin. "I'd rather kiss you when you're sober, okay?"

For the first time that day, Meiko was speechless. For a moment, anyway.

"…That was totally unfair" she mumbled.

"I know." Luka giggled. "It's your own fault though."

Meiko prepared to fire back, but instead raised a loaded hand and pointed down the street. "Hey, Haku, isn't that your wife over there?"

Haku looked up just in time to see a familiar blonde round the corner. "Ah…excuse me then," she said, and sprinted off. "And she's not my wife!" she called back a second later.

Meiko grinned. "She'll be fine…I think." She turned to Luka. "You, on the other hand…"

Luka shot her another glare. "Nuh-uh, you're sleeping alone tonight."

"You're cute when you're mad. You sure we can't have a wedding?"

"Go," Luka pointed towards their house. Meiko started whistling as she set off in the opposite direction. Her companion heaved another sigh and fell in step behind her.

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**Note: To anyone complaining about the other pairings...there is a method to the madness. And there is _much_ madness.**


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